[wp-hackers] Slim WordPress by way of Google Ajax API?

[Bret McMillan]

Matt Patenaude wrote:
> It does sound like a great idea.
> 
> But how would this affect loading time? The browser has to go to another 
> domain to grab the Ajax API  JS file, and then has to make another 
> round-trip to load the JS library?
> 
> A simplified API is great, but does it have to be remotely hosted? What 
> if, for instance, WordPress had its own JavaScript API-- you could put 
> the code for each JS library in the database, and then the first time 
> the file was requested, it could create a text-based cache of the file 
> with the appropriate settings. Then, if the version of the code in the 
> DB was updated, it could automatically replace the cached file.
> 
> Not trying to go off-topic here, but just saying. I like the premise, 
> but the fact that it's remotely hosted worries me (even if it is Google).
> 
> -Matt
> 
> On May 27, 2008, at 4:16 PM, Ronald Heft wrote:
> 
>> Sounds like a great idea. I'm down for using the AJAX API to serve
>> WordPress' Javascript.
>>
>> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Doug Stewart <zamoose at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I hope y'all saw this and thought "Hmm, a chance to strip JS libraries
>>> entirely out of the equation":
>>>
>>> http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/
>>>
>>> Thoughts?  Applicability to core WP?  I see a good deal of utility
>>> there, meself...

I don't have much experience with this, personally.  Looks quite 
different from GWT, which we've had some negative experiences with here 
internally.

That said, it'd be very problematic to create a dependency for an active 
connection to google.com; my organization, like probably many others, is 
looking to WordPress (in our case, WPMU) for internally-facing blogs. 
Such systems often have limited external connectivity.

What problem, exactly, would we be trying to solve?  Bloat of 
installation?  Bloat of packaging and deploymnet?  Some quick clicking 
via Firebug suggests if there's bloat, it's more on the CSS side of 
things...

--Bret